Agents Wanted

Agent Program Through CTS

An Agent gets customers to sign up for long distance through the TotalCall long distance service. A customer set up by an Agent has a monthly long distance bill, and the Agent receives a commission each month on that customer's long distance time billed by TotalCall.

In addition, once you as an Agent sign up 3 new customers, your own long distance time billed by TotalCall also receives a commission on your own long distance phone calls. As it takes us considerable effort to get an Agent set up (web site, commission account, etc), we discourage those persons who just want to become an Agent just to get an additional discount on themselves and who really don't attempt to try to get additional customers. That is why we require 3 additional customers in addition to the Agent's service before the Agent receives commissions on their own long distance service. The Agent is NOT required to switch their own long distance service to TotalCall although virtually all Agents do switch their service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is CTS, Incorporated of Virginia? CTS is a Master Agent of TotalCall. CTS has been in business for 23 years and, specifically, in the telecommunications business for 7 years.

Is there a cost to become an Agent? No.

When are commissions paid? Commissions are typically paid on or about the 15th of the month following the month after the customer's billing month has been closed. For example, if a customer's billing for the month of January is sent out on January 31, then typically by March 15th, your commission check would be mailed.

Is there a minimum commission check amount that is sent out? In the first 6 months of being a new Agent, you will receive a commission check for your customers you sign up no matter how small the check. After 6 months, you will receive a commission check if the commission is over $25. If it is less than $25, a check will not be sent out but the commission amount for than month earned will be added to the next month(s) monthly commission amount until the total check amount goes above $25 at which point CTS will send out your check. After your first full year (12 months), if your monthly commissions generated is under $1, you will no longer receive any commissions.

Why would you want to deal with CTS instead of directly with TotalCall? Well, you could, but CTS (as a Master Agent of TotalCall) has the following advantages that we can offer you as an Agent under CTS:

• CTS can provide you with greater hours of coverage for Agent support (9am-11pm Mon-Sat, 1pm-11pm Sun Eastern Standard Time, typically, vs. 9am-5pm Mon-Fri Pacific Time for TotalCall)
• CTS does not require any annual minimum total number of customers that must be met in order to be kept on as an agent, i.e., you do not loose the customers you've set up because your customers have not reached a high number of new customers. TotalCall Master Agents are required to set up 50 customers within one year.
• This plan is ideal for those who either want to "try out" selling long distance services, or want to set up a few (5-50) accounts and get commissions on these accounts
• CTS provides tracking of new customers to identify provisioning problems
• CTS does not require previous telcom experience, i.e., TotalCall requires agents to have previously sold telcom (long distance) service.
• CTS provides sales "hints" on how to market long distance service

What is identical between being a TotalCall Agent and a CTS Agent?

• The telephone customer's Customer Care toll-free help line at TotalCall
• Having a web site to allow customers to sign up themselves.

When should an person go directly to TotalCall to be an Agent? If you are currently in the telcom business as an agent and plan to provision a lot of customers (at least 50/year), you should sign up directly with TotalCall. CTS has the desire to work with those who want to do smaller amounts of sales and/or those persons who are not currently experienced telcom agents.

What is an Agent Code? As an Agent, you are assigned an Agent Code to allow for the proper assignment of commissions. An Agent Code will be set up for you to use -- usually within 24-48 hours -- along with the web site so you can have your customers sign up directly on-line through the Internet. Exception: a Friday (or weekend request) would probably take until Monday or Tuesday to get an Agent Code and the web site set up.

What is the commission? There are two plans available to "sell" to a customer: a 3.9 cent/minute interstate rate and a 4.4 cent/minute interstate rate. If you sign up a customer under the 3.9 cent/minute plan, you receive 4% of your customer's long distance call charges. If you sign up a customer under the 4.4 cent/minute plan, you receive 6% of your customer's long distance call charges. The commission is calculated on interstate, intrastate, international, and calling card charges that the customer generates within the billing month. Commissions are not calculated on any taxes,.e.g., Universal Service Charge tax, or on fees, e.g., the $1.00/month fee if a person has a toll-fee number. A commission bonus is also available (explained below).

Is there any "charge back" for a customer's bad debt? Explanation: After you set up a customer, you receive a commission on that customer's monthly long distance bill that is sent to the customer each month. If the customer does not pay their bill, you are required to pay back the commission you've already received from that customer's bill. You don't have to pay back the complete debt that the customer has with TotalCall, just the commission you've received on that monthly bill that the customer doesn't pay. For example, if you've received a commission of $15 for a customer and that customer doesn't pay their bill, after TotalCall attempts to collect this debt and determines that it is a bad debt, i.e., they cannot get the customer to pay the bill, you are required to return that $15 commission you've received. Be careful if you're looking to be an agent at other long distance companies. Some companies charge the whole bad debt of the customer against your commissions -- this can "wipe" out your commissions for several months (or years) especially if the customer is intentionally trying to scam you (and TotalCall) and runs up $500-$1000 in long distance calls. We know!!!! It's happened to us (CTS) several times in the past 7 years before we've carefully chosen companies (like TotalCall) that don't have this bad bad debt policy.

Is there any minimum amount that an Agent is required to sell? Yes. In order to continue to receive commissions, you must sign up 6 new customers a year (your own long distance phone service counts as 1 customer). For example, if you start in February, 2002, you need to have signed up a total of 6 customers by the end of March 2003.

What is the "penalty" if you don't reach your goal of 6 new customers at the end of each year (from the starting month of being an Agent)? You stop receiving commissions, but don't forget, you've received commissions throughout the year that you've signed up new customers. For example, if you started being an Agent in mid February, 2002 and as of the end of March 2003 you've sign up only 3 total customers, you would not receive commissions starting April, 2003. If there are any commission amounts accumulated from your customers through March, 2003, you would be paid a final commission check, i.e., you won't loose previous commissions generated.

Is there a "grandfather" clause? Yes. If you have signed up a total of 25 customers (over any period of time), you will continue to receive commissions without having to get any additional customers. The only "restriction" is that your commission check will comply with the minimum commission check amount previously described, i.e, no check sent out for less than $25 (but commissions accumulate), and no additional checks if monthly commission falls below $1.

Is there any bonus plan? Yes. If your total monthly commissions generated is between $100-$249.99, you get a 10% bonus of the commission amount generated for that month. If your total monthly commissions generated is greater than $250, you get a 25% bonus of the commission amounted generated for that month. Note: if you have Agents under you generating commissions, their commissions are included to make the monthly "bonus".

Can an Agent have other Agents setting up customers? Yes. It works like this:

• All commissions would be paid by you (not CTS) to those Agents.
• You can request additional Agent Codes so you can identify what Agent(s) are linked to what customers
• Each Agent under you can have a separate web site for signing up their customers
• Your monthly report from CTS will separate out all of your individual Agent's Codes by customer name.
• You can give whatever commissions you want to the Agents you set up.

Is there any cost for an Agent to set up another Agent under them? No. There is no cost to request additional Agent Codes for Agents under you.

Is there an advantage to have other Agents "working" under you? Yes. The total dollars for sending out a check ($25) and the total number of customers required to continue to be an Agent (6/year) are aggregated (combined) together. In addition, you reach your monthly bonus under the bonus plan previously described.

Am I protected from Agents that I sign up going directly to CTS to establish themselves as their own agent? Yes. If you tell us the Agent's name, CTS will not allow that Agent of yours to become an Agent under CTS's structure. We are not able to prevent that Agent under you to sign up directly under the TotalCall structure, but they must meet the TotalCall requirements to become a Master Agent and they probably don't qualify for this as they are most likely new to the telcom business.

If an Agent signs up more than 6 new customers in one year, does it carry over into the next year for meeting the 6 per year minimum requirement? Yes. For example, if you sign up 14 new customers in the first year, you are "good" for meeting your 6 per year for the first year, "good" for meeting your 6 per year for the second year, and have carried over 2 new customers toward your 3rd year. You've also are only 11 away from meeting the 25 customer "grandfather" clause (see above).

Do I have my own long distance web site for signing up customers on-line? Yes. In addition, if you already have a web site (and know how to do it), you can have a link going from your existing web site point to the long distance web site to allow your customers to sign up on-line.

How long does it take to be set up as an Agent and get a web site? About 24-48 hours.

Can I make special arrangements to get a commission for a group? Yes. This is called the affinity plan. If you have a group of people, i.e., a church, synagogue, mosque, civic association, etc., you can request that we set up a separate web site for persons in that group to sign up for long distance service. You can specify that all of the commissions each month would be sent to that affinity group, or you can specify part go to that group and part go to an individual (you?). For example, you might set up a civic association to get a 3% and 5% commission (on the 3.9 and 4.4 plan, respectively) to be sent to that group, and you (or someone else you specify) would get 1% commission. Other suggested groups: any charitable organization, hospital, cancer fund, victim's relief, volunteer fire department, boy or girl scouts. Note: some organizations do not allow solicitations using their name without written permission, so the best thing to do is to approach the organization and ask them permission to do so, especially if you are planning on receiving part of the available commission for yourself. For example, the boy scouts might not allow you to use their name to get commissions. You could, of course, just get all of the commissions yourself, then just write out a check to that organization as a donation. The key here is: be straight forward and honest with the organization(s) that you want to help out.

Why is the social security number in the below Agent application required? You are considered an independent contractor, and we are required to report any income you receive to the federal government. All long distance companies handle Agents receiving income this same way. If you already have a business and you want us to send your commission check to your company, then enter your company's federal ID number instead of the Social Security Number (and of course enter your organization/company name that the check will be made out to).

Why is an email address required? In order to reduce our long distance telephone costs and keep better track of our Agent's correspondence, email is used extensively. However, during the initial few weeks in getting yourself established as an Agent, we welcome phone calls with any questions (or problems -- none we hope) that you might have. Our toll-free phone number is 1-800-267-8276 and you can always use our toll-free fax number which is 1-888-810-3200.

If you would like to become an Agent, please fill out the following information:

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